Well, well, well, what do we have here? Out of the blue the Sony Xperia GX, previously codenamed LT29i "Hayabusa", just got officially annnounced by the Japanese this pretty London morning.

Everything we relayed to you about the newest Sony flagship turned out to be true, right down to the name and design concept, carrying over from the Xperia arc, but for now it is announced for Japan only, and arriving in the summer. We hope it will be making rounds worldwide come July, as that's the timeframe listed in the leaked 2012 Sony roadmap, along with a price in both Euros and US currency.

The handset will sport 4.6" HD Reality Display with the Mobile BRAVIA engine, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, and this mysterious new 13MP Exmor R camera sensor with "stacked" technology, which should bring enhanced low-light performance, among many other goodies. Watch a demo of one of the sensor's many virtues called "HDR Video" in Sony's clip below.

The rest of the specs include 16GB of internal memory, 1700mAh battery, Android ICS out of the box, and LTE connectivity radio, allowing up to 75Mbps download speeds, if the network can deliver that, of course. At 5.16 x 2.72 x 0.4" (131 x 69 x 10.5 mm) or 0.34" (8.6mm) at its thinnest, and 4.48oz (127 g) of weight it will also be one of the smaller big-screen phones on the market, and rumors are the battery is replaceable. The phone will be available in black and white, as you can see from the pics below. Best of all - no front buttons, just pure unadulterated ICS on-screen navigational joy.

Sony will introduce three new media applications with the launch of the Xperia GX, which will apparently be making their way to all of the company's new Android phones:

The "Album" application brings new intuitive ways to sort and browse high quality photos and videos in blazing speed, as well as providing instant viewing, commenting and sharing of photos on Facebook and other online albums, leveraging the great camera capabilities of Xperia GX and Xperia SX.

The "Movies" application streamlines the playback and viewing of movies in high quality audio and video with intelligent database search to discover more info about the movie for a rich and immersive experience.

We are already impatient for the eventual global availability in July - the MSRP in Sony's list was pegged at $632 SIM-free, which is about right for these specs, but, jeez, doesn't this smartphone season seem the toughest yet for choosing an Android flagship? Everybody is into the ring and fighting like an MMA champion on steroids.

9 May, London, United Kingdom - Sony Mobile Communications today announced two new Xperia™ Android smartphones designed specifically for the Japanese market. Xperia GX and Xperia SX join the popular Xperia NX and Xperia acro HD, currently among the best selling smartphones in Japan. Both Xperia GX and Xperia SX enable easy connectivity with multiple screens to share and enjoy content on whichever screen best suits the situation, whether it’s TV, smartphone, laptop or tablet.

Xperia LTE smartphones for JapanThe first Sony branded smartphones to launch in Japan Xperia GX and Xperia SX are LTE enabled with download speeds of up to 75mbps. They come with 1.5GHz dual core processors for faster performance and Reality Display powered by the Mobile BRAVIA® Engine for razor sharp clarity, full HD video and Sony Exmor R™ for mobile, enabling the capture of high quality, bright pictures and HD videos even in low light. With HD sharing through DLNA, and HDMI, controlling the smartphone with the TV remote control when connected to the TV, Xperia GX also deliver a full HD experience on the big screen.

New media applicationsBringing the best of Sony technology and premium entertainment experiences, Xperia GX and Xperia SX also introduce three new media applications:

The “Album” application brings new intuitive ways to sort and browse high quality photos and videos in blazing speed, as well as providing instant viewing, commenting and sharing of photos on Facebook and other online albums, leveraging the great camera capabilities of Xperia GX and Xperia SX.

The “Movies” application streamlines the playback and viewing of movies in high quality audio and video with intelligent database search to discover more info about the movie for a rich and immersive experience.

Xperia GX – capture ultra real memories in high definition Xperia GX boasts a 4.6” HD resolution screen for superior viewing. With a 13MP camera and full HD video recording, Xperia GX enables consumers to capture unforgettable moments in the highest quality, wherever they are. Building on the design success of Xperia arc, Xperia GX incorporates a matte texture and slimline body which fits perfectly into the consumer’s palm or pocket.Key features for Xperia GX

..and as for the eventual US release, for now one can only guess and wish for the eventual availability, but assuming by logic it should be one of these options:
- the same internals as the Japanese version
- a version with S4 Pro processor instead("Mint"?)

Overall, this sounds like the best phone on the globe right now, but that doesn't mean much until we get some concrete info about Sony's global plans.

It says in the article that the GX has LTE already. So, how is it that it already has LTE connectivity and yet they are going to come out with one with LTE connectivity later this year? That just doesn't make sense unless this article is not accurate. Also, that is just one source that is saying that. I have not found any other article or source to back that claim up. I will still wait to see, because either way there will most likely be another flagship device for Q4 by Sony. I don't think they would just have this one device to hold people in all year.

well it doesn't even have to be stock. i get that Sony wants to create a different kind of experience for their customers but i just think that the experience should be more seamless and unified. i'm pretty critical about these things and some of you are already like "what's with this guy? seriously?" but i can give you guys some examples of what things i think make the UI "disproportional".

this device is running ICS right? that status bar is looking way too Gingerbread to me. it doesn't use space nearly as efficiently as the new "holo" style on other ICS devices like on ICS for the Razr which is what i rock and that is an actual, noticeable improvement if only for the sake of aesthetics.

am i the only one that's bothered by the icons here? there's no theme going on at all here and if there is it's really bad. the App Drawer Icon is much too small next to the other Dock Icons and is just ridiculous. a few of the Icons here are offset and i hope that you guys have at least caught that the Phone Icon is nearly an exact replica of Sense's very own Phone Icon.

this is all just from a look at the homescreen. i realize these are just my opinions but i have a point behind them and you should take a sec to just hear me out instead of just attacking. it's not like i said it's baaad or anything. i like the look of the Phone and yay for on-screen function keys. i even like some of Sony's Widgets like that Clock Widget right there for instance. nice. i would slap a ROM straight on this though if i had gotten this phone by some circumstance because my OCD just would not allow for those flaws i pointed out. i personally like Moto's approach of squaring off the Icons to make them more dock friendly and proportionate. they still however need to work on the actual styles and the colors a little more though. the closest they had to get it down flat was in their builds of 2.3.4 on phones like the Droid 3 and the Droid Bionic and on their builds of 3.2 on the Xyboards. so there you have it. my never before seen views on Sony's UI. why is it the first? i don't usually go to Sony Articles. why did i come to this one? because this is an actually NICE. PHONE. okay?

Man you are ridiculous - dismissing a phone just on the base of a home screen photo. Really?
Btw, you ever used a Sony phone?
Their UI is still the most elegant and functional to me. I tried all launcher apps but none of them beats the Sony UI, even on Ginerbread

well there was enough on just that home screen photo to turn me off. first impressions are key and you'd be a fool to dispute that logic because whether you realize it or not even you draw opinions on devices all the time with a mere glance. i did not dismiss the phone, i dismissed the UI OF the Phone based on the elements of it that pointed out. they my seem very minor to you but to me they are critical. my phone brings order and efficiency to my life and i want a look to match in every manner. i've looked at a Xperia Play but it was briefly and i didn't have an extensive enough look to really judge anything beyond the Launcher like i've already done here. on Gingerbread the only custom Manufacturer UI's that i liked were TW4 & Moto's UI, this time around with ICS the only ones i like even a little bit are Moto's and LG's new UI.

I can see what you are saying but for me I don't have an issue with the app drawer icon being smaller because it doesn't have a label.

I'm surprised with your OCD you aren't complaining more about the fact that the browser icon and the walkman icon aren't the same size when both are circles, or that the camera icon is as short as the app drawer icon? What about the asymmetry there? I only noticed these now after reading your comment and looking at the home screen more closely. Still it doesn't bother me at all.

I also find it hard to believe that you actually like both Moto's new UI (which I might add does look rather sharp but that's only because it almost stock ICS) and Touchwiz 4? For the same reason, I'm not really a fan of LG's new UI but I have to say their new circular swipe to unlock is really cool. :)

UI's on any Android manufacturer are a "hit -and-miss" kinda thing. I am betting you could easily find a couple things on your Moto you wouldn't mind changing, King. My son owns the "Play", and while this is a whole new generation of Sony on it's own, I dislike it's UI. It seems very incomplete and takes away from a otherwise fun device.

No manufacturer is going to compete against other Flagships without a UI. But, sometimes I wonder- with ICS, why not??? If LG or Sony, 2 manufacturers that are in need of hits, put all their efforts into the hardware experience and just trusted ICS for the fantastic Android experience it is, wouldn't that be something that set them apart? The Nexus was fine, but some of the hardware was lacking. I see an opening for a good sales pitch here.

as usual snowgator i completely agree with you. no UI is perfect, not even Moto's which i'm such a fan of. yes, incomplete is another way of describing it too i think.

if you'll take a good look at Moto's newest UI you might think that Moto is going ahead with that mode of thinking but a completely stock experience device would certainly be welcome. i think the most raw place for that in the U.S. would be with T-Mobile's G Series. i'm sure much of the modding crowd is still on the carrier due to the up til recently constant availability of the Nexus and i'm sure their miffed about not getting it this year. a G3x in the form of either LG's Optimus 4X HD or HTC's One X would fit the bill nicely.

AT&T's 4G version packs Sony's custom UI which is what i was refering to. of course i've used Verizon's version as well but like you i knew it was irrelevant to bring up because it runs nearly stock Gingerbread.

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